A Puerto Rican Christmas: How to cook pernil

So, I finally broke down and paid a little extra for the video upgrade. That means you can expect to see a lot more videos on Heavenly Springs since I am determined to get my money’s worth!

With Christmas approaching, I thought I’d post on a few traditional Puerto Rican classics. The first is pernil (pronounced per-neel). Pernil is a “pork shoulder picnic” that is slow roasted and seasoned to perfection with spices like garlic, oregano, sazon, adobo, olive oil and sofrito. Sofrito, by the way, is the base for most Puerto Rican dishes. It is very simple to make and it will mean the difference if you truly want to cook authentic Puerto Rican food.

One of the best things about the pernil is the crunchy skin that Puerto Ricans refer to as chicharrones. Yes, I realize that this is terribly unhealthy but that’s really not a concern for most Puerto Ricans! As Elba, who I am about to introduce to you explains, family members in Puerto Rican households will literally fight over these crusty pieces!

Now, I’d like to introduce you to Elba. I discovered her on You Tube. Not that she was waiting for me to discover her, but you understand what I mean. At any rate, I think she is pretty wonderful!

In the first video, Elba will teach you how to make pernil. But remember, you must make the sofrito first! The second video will teach you how to do that!

Comments

Funny how the people who added the WordPress snow don’t have sufficient snow of their own. We could send you ours if you’d like. Watch the Weather Channel. We’re in one of those places in Northern Michigan that Jim Cantore is ranting about every winter that gets “lake effect snow” like Buffalo.

How funny, Jeff! You are right! We still haven’t had a good snowfall here in Brooklyn! I even contacted WordPress to find out if there was a way to increase the speed of the snowfall? Unfortunately it is one speed for all!

Jeff might want to ignore the snow and roast some pernil, it looks delicious!!! Now I need to figure out some of these ingredients… any recipe with more than 5 basic ingredients scares me to death! (But I can build a snowman.) And where does the green stuff go? I know I need a lot of help/prayers (or dinner invitation)! 🙂

Hi Christina,
Thank you again for posting my videos on your blog, I was so honored and touched. I see that you have lots of nice comments already. I linked your blog site to all my subscribers and friends on my You Tube channel and asked them to make sure they read the story about your grand mother.

Feel free to share the gift of cooking with your Facebook and Twitter friends also.

The honor was mine to be able to post your cooking videos on my blog. They are simply wonderful. And, an added blessing is the joy of finding out that you are not just a good cook but a dear sister in the Lord! Talk about unexpected! More and more I see that it is God who directs our steps, not us!

Early next week I will post on arroz con gandules and also a desert! I will ask my friends, on that post, to subscribe to your You Tube Channel and also your blog!

If I can find all the ingredients Christina I am going to try (this could be amusing) to make this! Love Elba! I am going to have fun watching all your videos now….and these recipes are making me hungry. God bless!